Introduction || Browse Plugins || Transition Curves || High Color Depth Support
PolyChrome Transitions for 10 Bit Color Onlines:
Final Cut Pro has many limitations when working with video footage in formats other than 8 bit YUV or 8 bit RGB color depth. One of the major missing pieces is that none of the transitions are capable of rendering in high bit depth apart from the basic cross dissolve.
This is obviously a concern as new technology such as the RED camera (and Phantom and Viper) make it more affordable to shoot in high color depths. The CoreMelt PolyChrome transitions aim to fill that missing gap as well as providing many more useful and stylistic transition effects. In addition there is a range of CoreMelt workflow papers available which discuss how to perform a complete end to end workflow using FCP, Motion, AE and Apple Color and ensure that you keep the full dynamic range of your color information right through to the final master.
Under Mac OS X 10.5.1 or later (Leopard), all the plugins in PolyChrome will render in 16 bit half float per channel color format preserving your full range of high color information on projects where requested. However there are some limitations on different hosts which apply. A fast graphics card with at least 256MB of VRAM is highly recommended for projects where 16 bit half float color format is required (eg ATI Radeon X1600, ATI Radeon X1900 or Nvidia GeForce 8600M GT)
Final Cut Pro cannot render at greater than 8 bits per channel when you select any RGB codec as your sequence setting (Eg Animation Codec or Blackmagic 10 Bit RGB). To use High Color Depth rendering in Final Cut Pro you must select a YUV codec in your sequence settings. In FCP you are restricted in the range of color depth by the limits of YUV codecs to 8,10 or 12 bits per channel color. When the option "use high precision rendering for all YUV material" is checked in your sequence settings then plugins in the Motion pack will render in 16 bit half float precision preserving the full range of your 10 bit or 12 bit video footage. Although these plugins will work with all codecs, you may get best results using Apple ProRes 422 (HQ) where 10 bit color is required and realtime performance is required and CineForm 2K/HD 12 bit 444 or Blackmagic 10 bit uncompressed codec where the absolute highest quality is required.
Sequence settings in FCP for high precision rendering accessed under "Sequence->Settings" menu option.
Final Cut Express only supports YUV 8 bit rendering so all plugins will render at 8 bits per channel color depth.